Accessing Digital Newspapers: Home

The importance of reading newspapers

Part of Simmons' mission is to cultivate community leaders, and part of becoming a community leader is engaging in and visiting community spaces. One of the most precious community spaces is your local library. So long as you are a Jefferson County resident or a Simmons student, you are able to get a library card for free at the Louisville Free Public Library (LFPL). Public libraries are government entities and tend to be well-funded in larger metro areas, such as Louisville. As such, LFPL has funding for a number of valuable resources, and specifically newspaper subscriptions (follow the steps in this link to get a LFPL borrower's card).

Another part of becoming a community leader is being knowledgeable about your community and about the world beyond your community. One of the best ways to do this is by reading newspapers. Although local news organizations have suffered greatly in the internet and social media ages, many local newspapers nonetheless persist. Additionally, it is necessary to read newspapers of record (major national newspapers). In the United States, these are Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Although not without bias, major news organizations have editorial processes that make their publications much more reliable and trustworthy than the opinion pieces that get passed around social media as "news." Reading beyond bias is a skill to be cultivated, but before you can read beyond bias in news you must read the news.

LFPL newspaper resources

Once you have your library card and online PIN, you can access LFPL's newspaper resources at this link: https://www.lfpl.org/research/Subjects/Newspapers.php. The newspapers of greatest note are:

• Business First Louisville
  • "Business First is a source for local business news and information for Greater Louisville."
• Courier-Journal
  • "Contains full-text articles from the Courier-Journal, covering the years from 2008 to 2 weeks prior to today." It is Louisville's primary newspaper of record.
•  The New York Times
  • "Access the New York Times for original, quality journalism, varied perspectives and practical advice on nearly every topic — from the vital issues shaping our world to the simple pleasures that make everyday life better."
• The Wall Street Journal
  • "Contains newspaper articles on a broad range of topics," with a focus on business and financial news.

Also included are newspaper databases that contain various local newspapers throughout Kentucky and elsewhere, as well as historical newspaper databases where you can access newspapers dating back nearly 200 years. The Louisville Defender is included in the Historical Black Newspapers database from 1951-2010. The Simmons library subscribes to print copies of the Louisville Defender.

Photo from: https://www.lfpl.org/branches/western.htm

Photo by No Revisions on Unsplash
 

Newspaper discounts for students

One of the great benefits of being a college student is receiving discounts for digital newspapers. So long as you sign up and verify using your Simmons email (or any email that ends in ".edu"), you receive these discounts. Sometimes the discount applies for as long as you have access to your college email and other times you get the discount for your first year. At the moment, I'm paying $1 a week with my college email for a digital subscription to The Washington Post. Once that discount ends, I'll jump to another major newspaper (or digital magazine, which are usually less concerned with keeping up with minute-to-minute news and are instead focused on more rigorous analysis). A newspaper subscription is a worthwhile investment.